eOne, 1984 Private Defense Contractors pact

Duo form exclusive multi-year film financing agreement

Entertainment One and indie producer 1984 Private Defense Contractors have formed an exclusive multi-year film financing and distribution agreement.

The deal was announced Thursday, a week before the Berlin Film Festival opens. It gives eOne a first-look at financing and distributing all 1984 films including gangster thriller “Corsica 72″ from the “Skyfall” writing team of Neal Purvis and Robert Wade and the untitled female “Expendable” project, written by Dutch Southern.

Patrice Theroux, who leads eOne’s film operations, said: “It’s incredibly rewarding to attach the industry’s most sought-after independent producers to our multi-territory infrastructure and finance projects in new and resourceful ways that largely contribute to the making of great pictures.”

eOne will distribute 1984 films in Canada, the U.K., Benelux, Spain and Australia while its foreign sales arm, eOne Films Intl., will handle the rest of the world. CAA will rep U.S. rights.

“Spencer (Silna) and I have dreamed of having a studio first-look deal since the day we started our shingle four years ago,” said 1984’s Adi Shankar. “We’re particularly happy to have our home at eOne, as it provides us with robust studio-level distribution, but the flexibility of an independent company. This partnership allows us to quickly greenlight films while circumventing the byzantine juggling act of traditional indie tent pole filmmaking.”

Benedict Carver and Lara Thompson will oversee the deal for eOne. Shankar has previously set up TV drama and reality projects with eOne.